Truth is the beginning of wisdom…

Quotes To Ponder

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse [money, bounty, assistance, gifts] from the public treasury.
- Alexis de Tocqueville

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
- Alexander Frazer Tytler

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Archive for January, 2009

That is a question more Americans are asking now that details are trickling in about the controversial $825 billion plus “economic recovery” package.

This “stimulus” bill so far is over 1,588 pages with only 5% of the legislation actually going towards infrastructure. The rest of the bill reads like a taxpayer funded payoff to groups that have supported liberal/socialist Democrats’ interests. The cost to every American household will be over $10,000.00.

Real Cost of Stimulus Plan? Almost $1.2 Trillion

Taxpayers will pay much more for the fiscal stimulus than previously revealed – over $1.17 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Most sources have assessed the cost of the stimulus package at approximately $825 billion. But the CBO reports those estimates do not include the cost of the money that must be borrowed to pay for the plan. CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf estimated the cost of borrowing the money would be $347.1 billion – or about 42% of the cost of the projects. That would push the total cost of the stimulus package to over $1.17 trillion. The true cost may climb even higher, however, because the CBO’S calculations are all based on its low-end estimate that the base cost of the stimulus package will be just $815.9 billion, compared to the $825 figure commonly used. The higher the cost, the more expensive the program is to finance and the greater the total debt burden on future taxpayers.

The last several months are a foreshadowing of a new era of government activism, rather than an unfortunate but necessary (and anomalous) emergency action. We will soon shift from a market-based economy to a political one in which the government picks winners and losers and extends its reach and power in unprecedented ways.

Democrat Absurdities in Obama’s Spending Plan

As the veil begins to drop from the shady elements of the stimulus, more people are beginning to understand what’s at stake. Today’s New York Times reads, “Stimulus Offers Road to Retooling Social Policy” with “little notice and no public hearings.” The 1,588 page H.R. 1 has plenty of waste, wish lists and pork.

As the list grows it and the subjects are decoded into everyday language, it is extraordinary and mind numbingly stupid for them to be part of a “stimulus package.” And how exactly do these items create new, immediate, sustainable jobs for everyday people?

This is not a complete list, and to be fair a couple of these were dropped*, or partially dropped, but the rest are still there.

$2 billion to help subsidize child care.

$400 million for research into global warming.

$2.4 billion for projects to demonstrate how carbon greenhouse gas can be safely removed from the atmosphere.

$650 million for coupons to help consumers convert their TV sets from analog to digital, part of the digital TV conversion.

$600 million to buy a new fleet of cars for federal employees and government departments.

$75 million to fund programs to help people quit smoking.

$21 million to re-sod the National Mall, which suffered heavy use during the Inauguration.

$2.25 billion for national parks. This item has sparked calls for an investigation, because the chief lobbyist of the National Parks Association is the son of Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wisc. The $2.25 billion is about equal to the National Park Service’s entire annual budget. The Washington Times reports it is a threefold increase over what was originally proposed for parks in the stimulus bill. Obey is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

$335 million for treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.

$4.19 billion to stave off foreclosures via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The bill allows nonprofits to compete with cities and states for $3.44 billion of the money, which means a substantial amount of it will be captured by ACORN, the controversial activist group currently under federal investigation for vote fraud. Another $750 million would be exclusively reserved for nonprofits such as ACORN – meaning cities and states are barred from receiving that money. This money highly likely to be a “payoff” for the partisan political activities community groups in the last election cycle.

$44 million to renovate the headquarters building of the Agriculture Department.

So Al Gore braved the winter storm and the world’s sense of irony to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on global warming. As usual, Mr. Gore’s testimony was riddled with scientifically questionable claims and hyperbole passed off as indisputable facts: “This would bring a screeching halt to human civilization and threaten the fabric of life everywhere on earth … And this is within the century, if we don’t change.”As usual, Mr. Gore’s claim of a scientific consensus that, “The scientists are practically screaming from the rooftops” went unchallenged despite more and more scientists coming out as skeptics. And as usual, Mr. Gore’s standing to profit from alternative fuel technology subsidies, as he hoped to include in the stimulus, went ignored by the media and committee alike. As usual, the dissenters did their best to point out Gore’s inconsistencies. As usual, they were ignored by the media.

However, something very unusual is happening despite business-as-usual on The Hill. The American people are starting to catch on to these inconsistencies. According to new polls, those who believe this “global warming” push to be a natural phenomenon of long-term planetary trends or cycles, instead of being created by man has increased almost 10% in just a matter of months.

An interesting article came out today from the usually reliably left-leaning Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. Within it, Mr. Milbank mercilessly mocks the former Vice President, repeatedly referring to him as the “Goracle” and mocking members of the committee for fawning at his feet.

Could Al Gore be wearing out his welcome not just with the American public, but even with his once staunchest allies?

The Mexico City policy was first implemented via a memorandum by President Reagan in 1984 at a United Nations population conference in Mexico City, thus the name Mexico City policy. Prior to President Reagan’s actions American policy on paper was to never promote abortion overseas, however in practice US tax dollars directly supported organizations which advocated and performed abortion. It remained in effect until 1993 when President Clinton rescinded the Mexico City policy on January 22, 1993 for the entirety of his tenure in office. On January 22, 2001, President Bush issued a memorandum restoring the Mexico City policy.

In as little words as possible, the Mexico City policy halts U.S. family planning funds from going to foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that perform abortions or “actively promote” abortion as a method of family planning in other countries.

What does this mean? Under the Mexico City Policy for an NGO to be “actively promoting” abortions means they provide advice and information regarding the availability of abortion or encourage women to consider abortion; lobby a foreign government to legalize or make more available abortion; or conduct a public information campaign regarding the benefits and/or availability of abortion.

That is what NGO’s can’t do. What they CAN still do under the Mexico City Policy is provide referrals for abortion in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother’s life would be endangered if the unborn child were carried to term; and treat injuries or illnesses caused by legal or illegal abortions, i.e., post-abortion care. The argument that the Mexico City Policy is in actually a “global gag rule” is pure and utter nonsense – unless you actually believe that abortion, killing the child in the womb, is a form of family planning.

The effect of President Obama rescinding the Mexico City Policy is that now millions ($461 million in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008) of dollars are taken away from family planning groups that do not promote abortion, and delivered into the hands of organizations that are the most militant in promoting abortion as a population-control method – especially in countries that find abortion objectionable on moral grounds.

To those like Pelosi who refuse to learn from history, and think population control and controlling people is the answer, are not just socialists but are working out of Marxist thought of government.That government, among other things, sees themselves as smarter and superior than their people, and that they have the ability to take care of the people better than they can take care of themselves.

Population control, abortion, entitlement programs, industry takeovers, etc. are all part of this thinking.

The notion that a larger population will produce a lower standard of living can be traced to the 18th-century economist Thomas Malthus. But during Malthus’s own lifetime, his prediction was proved false, as he later acknowledged. Population and living standards rose simultaneously, and have continued to do so.

Ms. Pelosi’s remarks ignore the importance of human capital, which is the ultimate resource. Fewer babies would move the U.S. in the demographic direction of Europe and Asia. On the Continent, birth rates already are effectively zero, and economists are predicting labor shortages in the years ahead. In Japan, where the population is aging very fast, workers are now encouraged to go home early to procreate. Japan is projected to lose 21% of its population by 2050.

America needs to produce 2.1 children per couple to keep up with births to support the population — and that rate is not being maintained. Economies in Europe have been especially hurt by a drop in birth rates.

WSJ.com International

The age and growth rate of a nation help determine its economic prosperity. A smaller workforce can result in less overall economic output. Without enough younger workers to replace retirees, health and pension costs can become debilitating. And when domestic markets shrink, so does capital investment. Taxpayer subsidies for contraception as economic stimulus are suicide.

What planet was Nancy Pelosi hatched on … Planet Hollywood? Just when you think you have heard the stupidest statements come out of the mouth of a politician … another one tops it!

It is not bad enough that we have a burgeoning stimulus package that will virtually do nothing for the economy except bailout mismanagement by the states and others … along comes “Dr.” Nancy with the calculation that FEWER BABIES = STRONGER ECONOMY. Does she come up with this on her own or are her advisors just as dumb?

What a shocking statement, that the Speaker of the House would actually go on national television and claim, that contraception would reduce the cost to the government and in some asinine way be seen as stimulating the economy.

Whose economy … the economy of the multi-billion dollars abortion industry? You mean the abortion industry is not getting enough taxpayer dollars already? How can even the idea of spending of millions of dollars on birth control and abortion be part of the economic stimulus package?

Of course, it is once again under the guise of “Medicaid” … “children’s health” … “children’s education” … “family-planning services.” When did abortions become healthy for children? When did encouraging children to have sex before marriage become healthy for children? What family planning service is offered except to terminate the family part? … This is not for families and society – it is for the invigorated abortion industry with renewed hope as the new administration of death has just increased their market!

“Contraception,” argued Pelosi, “will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.” How do more people mean less economic growth? They leave illegal immigration wide open and instead kill our own babies … how logical is that?

Will the spending of $87 billion on “family-planning services” help dig America out of its economic doldrums? No! It doesn’t even make sense to think this would reduce our economic crisis. The very thought is so wrong on so many different levels. This shouts a very deviant and flawed thought process. It is inconceivable that she would try to stimulate the economy by “seeking to reduce the number of children.”

We have reached a new low when our high-ranking public office holders in the federal government cast children as the enemy … but it does explain their enthusiasm for their abortion-on-demand war cry on human life. This all is part and package of the social engineering of socialism.

Well, the high-sheen veneer and cult-of-personality euphoria surrounding America’s new oratory endowed president looks to be dissolving rather quickly. While millions had hoped for a political “messiah,” it’s fast becoming evident that, instead, we’ve stuck ourselves with an extreme leftist ideologue whose brand of “change we can believe in” is, in fact, “change we never imagined.” (Sorry to burst the Barack bandwagon bubble, but I say it like I see it.)

The examples are piling up in terms of the radical pro-abortion polices he’s planning to implement, the many-times-failed Marxist fiscal policies he’s promised to test yet again, and – relative to his national security goals – the noxiously naive peacenik policies that have Mahmoud and Osama giggling themselves to sleep at night.

But on issues involving marriage, family and sexual morality, Obama’s been even more brazen than some of his most ardent detractors could have expected. Literally within minutes after he took the oath of office, the official White House webpage was updated – under the heading of “The Agenda: Civil Rights” – to detail his wholesale “support for the LGBT (homosexual activist) community.” His stated plans include the following:

Defeating all state and federal constitutional efforts to defend the millennia-old definition of natural marriage from attacks by “gay marriage” activists.

Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996. This is the only line of defense keeping all 50 states from being forced to recognize so-called “same-sex marriages” from extremely liberal states like Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy despite the fact that the vast majority of military commanders and personnel say it will dangerously disrupt unit cohesion and troop morale.

Passing constitutionally dubious and discriminatory “hate crimes” legislation, granting homosexuals and cross-dressers exclusive rights – denied other Americans – based on sexual behaviors that are deviant, changeable, and widely regarded both here and around the world as immoral.

Passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would force business owners (religious and otherwise) to abandon traditional values relative to sexual morality under penalty of law.

The gravity of this situation cannot be overstated. Right out of the chute, Obama has told the world that he is signing off, without exception, on every demand of the extremist homosexual and transsexual lobbies.

The radical homosexual agenda and religious/free-speech liberties cannot occupy the same space. It’s a zero-sum game. When 1-2 percent of the population is granted exclusive rights based on the aforementioned deviant sexual proclivities and changeable sexual behaviors – to the detriment of everyone else – that’s called tyranny of the minority.

Obama recently said, “I don’t want to pit Red America against Blue America. I want to be President of the United States of America.” Well, Mr. President, remember that whole actions versus words cliché? Your words ring hollow and your actions speak volumes. Every policy you promise to implement does exactly what you’ve denounced. Both your actions and your words very much pit Red America against Blue America.

For all the talk of “hope,” “change,” and “coming together,” it’s becoming abundantly clear that Barack Obama’s administration will be the most leftist, divisive and discriminatory in recent memory. I suspect the immediate, stark and in-your-face revisions he’s made to the White House website are a metaphor for what we can expect, in terms of broader policy, from his administration.

Obama said in an August 19, 2008 speech: “Change doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington.” Well, radical change in the form of Barack Obama has certainly come to Washington. Not just in terms of the man’s skin color – which is historic and most encouraging – but in terms of his exceptionally extreme and demonstrably dangerous liberal policies (not so encouraging).

So it would seem that change does in fact “come from Washington.” Change more radical than our nation has ever seen. Change our founders could have never imagined.

People of faith, conservatives, and those of you with traditional values: hold on to your hats – it’s going to be a bumpy four years.

President Obama has signaled, during these first days in office, that his administration will be the most extreme, left-wing, and discriminatory in all of American history.His plans to cater to the priorities of homosexual activists are laid out under a section called “Civil Rights” on the website WhiteHouse.gov.

This website makes clear Obama’s intention to expand federal hate crimes statutes to include extra punishment for crimes that are deemed to be motivated by bias against one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The site also stresses Obama’s support for homosexual civil unions and expanded adoption rights for homosexuals, as well as his desire to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (a.k.a., DOMA).

Will the Americans that voted for Obama be shocked to find out just how radical some of Obama’s positions are on social issues?I’m sure they will.

Some people say they cannot judge whether or not Barack Obama has a relationship with Christ because that is between him and God.I disagree as Scripture tells us that you will be known by your fruits, and here we see Barack Obama promoting counter-biblical, anti-Christian policies that elevate deviant and dangerous sexual behaviors that are destructive spiritually, physically and emotionally, and certainly – when embraced as Barack Obama has embraced them – are destructive to all society.The Bible says if someone is a real Christian there is fruit.The inverse of no fruit signifies this is an unreal (fake) “Christian.”By definition it is very obvious by what Obama promotes … he is not a real Christian.

For all the talk of hope and change it is now clear that Barack Obama’s tenure will be the most leftist, intrusive, and discriminatory in the history of American.

During this “Sanctity of Life” month while we remembered the nearly 50 million unborn Americans whose lives have been sacrificed on the altar of “choice,” the White House has not only invigorated the culture of death by its actions at home in America, but abroad as well as this administration is determined to spread it worldwide by putting this death back into U.S. foreign policy. According to his aides, President Obama had planned to commemorate the Roe v. Wade ruling by issuing an executive order forcing taxpayers to promote overseas abortions.

Obama delivered on his promise of taxpayer-funded promotion of abortion. The order overturning the “Mexico City Policy” was signed unleashing millions of federal dollars to international abortion groups. Of course, it was no accident that the new president postponed the act until the last possible minute on Friday, knowing the repeal would be buried in the weekend headlines of the liberal media.

The Mexico City Policy, which has long protected American citizens from subsidizing international “family planning” groups that promote abortion, is now a thing of the past. The end of “Mexico City” is nothing less than a tragedy for the world’s poor.

Ironic enough at the same time Obama planned to sign a series of anti-interrogation orders to eliminate torture of terrorists. How could he eliminate torture for terrorists while in the same breath demanding that we export the torture of the unborn?

Obama leads America down the road of death.

Americans watched on television as President Bush’s jumbo jet soared out of sight Tuesday – and with him, a long record of protecting the unborn. The Obama administration was just a little over 24 hours old when the new President’s anti-family anti-life promises were officially unveiled on the new White House website.

Minutes after Obama took the oath of office, the transfer of power was made complete on the White House website. The page, once home to a host of family values, now welcomes an extreme collection of anti-life, anti-woman, and anti-family agendas. Disguised under the caption “civil rights,” Obama pledges to fight for nationwide civil unions, repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, homosexual adoption, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, expanded “hate crimes,” and over 1,100 costly same-sex benefits. He promises to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as well as block a federal amendment to preserve marriage. In exchange for the support of groups like Planned Parenthood, the multi-billion dollar abortion business is also due for a rich payoff from the 44th president, including his support of abortion-on-demand, more funding for “family planning” programs, embryonic stem cell experiments, and tax-funded abortion.

Barack Obama had pledged (if anyone was listening to what he was saying instead of worshipping their new messiah) to overturn virtually all abortion restrictions, upend the Defense of Marriage Act, and bring open homosexuality into the armed forces … and that’s just what he did. Congress has lurched further to the left, making this almost certainly the most liberal Congress in the history of our nation. Solid majorities in both the House and Senate stand ready to march lock-step with Obama’s agenda.

Obama has pledged, and now enacted, the most radical pro-abortion agenda in American history. He did what he said, “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA). Toppling FOCA overturns hundreds of pro-life measures and partial-birth abortion.

This toppling is the work of the foolish * … whether they call themselves Christians or not. The evidence of true believers are those who are obedient to God’s Word and demonstrat the fruits of the Spirit. Until Obama demonstrates this, don’t try to tell me he is a Christian … church attendance and words are a sorry excuse for the evidence of obedience to God. I wish the evidence in Obama’s life was different … but at this point in time is isn’t.

I ask you to pray for a change of heart for President Obama. Also, for those who would put their own interests, emotions and desires before God’s Word and directives and think that it is okay. It is not!

The interesting thing is that if this kind of evil legislation was accepted as the norm when Obama was conceived he very likely would never have become the first black president of the United States of American … he would have just been another statistic.

* The Old Testament. Several Hebrew words are rendered “fool,” with nuances ranging all the way from the naive but teachable person (Prov 14:15peti [yit.P], derived from the Hebrew root meaning “open, ” hence impressionable ) to the hopelessly incorrigible person who deserves no corrective efforts since such will be in vain (Prov 26:3kesil [lyis.K]). In most cases the context will help the reader determine which of the many meanings is to be preferred.

The heaviest concentration of the Hebrew words referring to foolishness is in the Wisdom literature, where the fool is constantly contrasted with the wise. The fool is not so much stupid (except when the context demands such a meaning) as immoral and pernicious. The fool’s problem is not so much intellectual as practical and spiritual. In fact, the terms “wise” and “fool” are used by the sages to designate respectively the faithful and the sinners.

A further insight into the nature of the fool is provided by the Hebrew word nabal [l’b”n]. This is the word used in Psalm 14:1, where the fool declares, “There is no God.” Not only is the fool immoral, he is also godless. His mind is closed to God (as Nabal’s mind was closed to reason 1 Sam 25:25). He conducts his life without any recognition of God and thus is corrupt and perverse (Psalms 14:1Psalms 14:3). He does not fear the Lord and hence knows nothing of wisdom (Prov 1:29). The same Hebrew term is also applied to the nations. Wisdom is seen as the gift of God, expressed in the Torah. To be without it as the Gentile nations were (Deut 32:21) or to ignore it as Israel did (Deut 32:6) is to be foolish.

* The New Testament. There are fewer Greek terms employed for the fool and these are essentially negative, indicating that the fool is lacking in sense and intelligence. The gravity of the condition of the fool can be seen in the warning of Jesus that to call a person such is to be in danger of “the fire of hell” (Matt 5:22). The designation “fool” is considerably more derogatory than other terms of abuse. Clearly, to be a fool in this biblical sense is a serious matter.

Paul makes frequent ironic reference to foolishness, particularly in 1 and 2 Corinthians. He deprecates the wisdom of the world, which characterizes God’s action in Jesus as nonsensical and scandalous. Human understanding erroneously takes God’s wisdom to be foolishness and God’s strength to be weakness since God’s actions do not fit human reason or expectation. Indeed, from a worldly perspective God uses the foolish thing and calls the foolish person (1 Cor 1:27-28).

Elsewhere in the New Testament foolish has a more conventional sense. Believers are urged not to be foolish (Eph 5:15-16) and to distinguish carefully between heavenly and earthly wisdom (Jas 3:13-18).

This negative attitude toward foolishness is understandable when its practices are observed. Among these practices are: relying on earthly wealth (Luke 12:20); failing to recognize that the ministry of Jesus is God’s visitation to claim his own bride (Matt 25:1-13); turning away from the gospel of grace to legalism (Gal 3:1-3); worshiping the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:18-23); and abrogating the demands of God with meaningless distinctions (Matt 23:16-22). Perhaps even more significant than the above characteristics is a failure to act on the words of Jesus by building a house without an adequate foundation (Matt 7:26-27), and a failure to believe the good news of Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:25 here the foolish are described as “slow of heart” the Old Testament expression is “without heart, ” without understanding, as in Prov 9:16). The believer is not to be foolish, but to “understand what the Lord’s will is” (Eph 5:17).

Barack Obama is going to fix everything, right? That’s what the liberal media keeps telling us: he’s young, he’s personable, he’s the sum of everyone’s hopes, he’s the new FDR, the new Lincoln. He had nothing to do with the recession or the credit crunch or the mistakes that were made in Iraq or Afghanistan or any of the other old-regime bad things. This handsome JFK-revisited guy is going to magically sweep away all those bad things with his magic new broom. Right?

Wrong. The land we love has been hijacked by a bunch of left-liberal fruitcakes. They don’t have much of an idea how to fix the economy. But they do know exactly how to ruin your life. And they will. In Welcome to Obamaland: I Have Seen Your Future, and It Doesn’t Work, British author James Delingpole reveals how. Delingpole has seen it all before: Obama is intent on implementing policies that have already been tried and failed in Britain — not that that country’s Socialist elite has noticed their failure. He explains how, over the next four or eight long, weary years, our taxes are going to rise, our standard of living is going to drop, and — maybe the worst thing of all for free Americans — our liberties are going to be curtailed.

Socialists, he explains, don’t believe in freedom — and Socialism is what we’ve got now. The Democrats won’t call it that, says Delingpole, but the results will be the same. They’ll dress it up with nice-sounding phrases like “equality,” “fairness,” “social justice,” “freedom of choice,” “environmental care,” “affirmative action,” “multiculturalism,” “carbon emissions reduction,” “negotiated settlement,” “ethical foreign policy,” “animal rights,” and “consumer protection.” Under those guises, they will push for higher taxes (needed to fund all the big, new government programs Obama will assure us are necessary to ensure fairness and economic justice); enact stringent gun bans; implement government controls, initiatives, and busybody interference in your life in order to meet the imaginary threat of manmade global warming; plunge America into the nightmare of inefficiency known as socialized medicine; perpetuate the great liberal cultural death wish of unrestricted immigration; and pursue appeasement of America’s enemies.

But take heart. Delingpole concludes with a number of reasons for conservatives to feel consoled even as Obamamania sweeps the nation and the world. In Welcome to Obamaland, he provides conservatives with solid arguments and evidence to convince friends and coworkers who have drunk the Obama Kool-Aid to curb their enthusiasm.